IRS Amazon Theft List

IRS Amazon Theft List

MAY 21--Entrusted with a government credit card, an Internal Revenue Service worker allegedly used the plastic for a years-long Amazon.com shopping spree that netted her hundreds of items, including a chocolate fondue fountain; Bollywood movies; Pampers; Harlequin romance novels; Omaha Steaks; Apple Bottoms skinny jeans; mango body wash; and a Ginsu knife set.

Yetunde Oseni, 37, was named this month in a U.S. District Court felony complaint charging her with embezzling government funds. Oseni has worked since 2000 as a secretary in an IRS office in Lanham, Maryland.

According to a court filing, Oseni was given a Citibank MasterCard for the “purchase of office supplies for her business unit.”

However, a probe by the Treasury Department’s inspector general determined that Oseni has made scores of unauthorized purchases since being provided the IRS credit card in mid-2009. Oseni “provided altered receipts to approving officials at the IRS to cover-up the unauthorized purchases,” prosecutors charge.

While the criminal complaint does not itemize the “household items and food products” purchased by Oseni from Amazon.com, a search warrant for her Bowie, Maryland home includes an eight-page inventory detailing the illegal haul, which investigators have valued at $8515.

Oseni, who is free on a personal recognizance bond, faces a maximum of ten years in prison if convicted on the embezzlement count. She is scheduled for a June 12 hearing at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.

According to bankruptcy court records, Oseni filed for Chapter 13 protection in June 2011, citing liabilities of between $50,000 and $100,000. She estimated her assets at less than $50,000. But a judge subsequently dismissed the case when Oseni failed to file required financial disclosure documents. (11 pages)